Rep. Black Speaks Out on Obamacare-Related Closing of Noshville Delicatessen

Washington, D.C. – Today, Congressman Diane Black (R-TN-06), a nurse for more than 40 years and member of the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, spoke on the House floor to lament the Obamacare-related closing of Noshville Delicatessen’s location in midtown Nashville after 19 years in business. As The Tennessean reported, the restaurant cited “the rising cost of insurance premiums and government requirements related to the Affordable Care Act” in their decision to close.

A transcript of Congressman Black’s message on the House floor is provided below:

Mister Speaker, just this week the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office confirmed, again, what we already knew: Obamacare is costing jobs – two million of them over the next ten years to be exact.

But those aren’t just numbers. Represented within that study are real people whose lives and livelihoods are being upended by a government-knows-best law that, more than five years later, still remains underwater with the American public.

We saw a real-life picture of the damage of Obamacare in my home state of Tennessee when a Music City institution – the Noshville Deli – announced this week that it would close its doors after 19 years because of the onerous mandates and high costs of this law.

The restaurant’s owner, Tom Loventhal, said that “The administrative time and costs of managing mandated health insurance in the restaurant industry create an untenable burden, and that’s before the cost of premiums.”

He goes on to say, “I’ve spent many hours, including some sleepless nights trying to find a solution, but I can’t find one.”

Mister Speaker, the Noshville Deli is one of a kind, but sadly its story is not. It is being repeated across this country every day.

While I continue to believe that the only real solution to the damage of Obamacare is to repeal this law root-and-branch, I am pleased that the House and Senate have passed a reconciliation bill combating the most onerous portions of this law.

When we put this bill on the President’s desk, I hope he will think of the real people like Tom and his employees who are hurt by Obamacare.

And the next time my colleagues across the aisle want to call Obamacare a “jobs bill” – as Leader Pelosi infamously said – I would invite them to come to the Noshville Deli, where they can get a good meal, and a healthy dose of reality.

But they better do it quickly because, thanks to their votes, time for this beloved Nashville icon is running out.

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Congressman Diane Black represents Tennessee’s 6th Congressional District. She has been a registered nurse for more than 40 years and serves on the House Ways and Means and Budget Committees.